Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Keira loves to go with me to my midwife appointments. She loves to "help" the midwife, and she also loves to stop to take pictures at cemeteries! She keeps her eyes open and points out each time I pass one without stopping. On our way home from the midwife last week, it was sprinkling, and I wasn't really keen on getting out of the car. But Keira had a solution for that too. She told me just to pull over and take a picture out the window! I finally obliged her and stopped at a cemetery. (There are more cemeteries where my midwife is than anywhere else I have ever seen!)
This cemetery is newer than I usually like, but I was really fascinated by some of the unusual grave stones.

One of the biggest reasons I like cemeteries is that I love to see the stories of people's lives. I love their history. Older cemeteries often have more information on the grave stones than more modern cemeteries.

This man appeared to be buried beside his son who died before him. They both appeared to be in the military. I have never seen statues like these on a grave before. I wish that these grave stones had explanations about why these were important to this man and his family.

This fish was just laying on the ground on top of another grave. Above the fish were three letters laying in an arc just under the head stone. (I wish I had gotten a picture of the whole thing.) Again I wish I knew the story about the meaning of these objects.

This head stone had three little dogs with a flag and a wind catcher and solar light. Keira really wanted to see the dogs!

This is one of the grave stones that I found very interesting as it had a picture imprinted on it. In the past, I have seen small pictures of the person who died or something like that, but nothing like this. It made this stone beautiful and interesting.

Though you can't see what is on this grave stone, it had a laser cut picture of the woman who died with her name and birth and death along with a poem. I hadn't seen a grave stone shaped like this or imprinted like this.

Let me add that when I visit a cemetery, I try my best to be respectful. It always seems to be a good time to reflect on life and on why death entered the world. I try not to walk on any graves if possible. (In older cemeteries, it isn't always obvious where they are!)

Friday, March 27, 2015

My sister and I love tie dyed clothes, so every couple of years we dye things for the kids. (It seems to be every time I'm pregnant!) So last week, Megan came over with her kids and we tried Indigo Dying for the first time and regular tie dying. Fortunately it was a beautiful day, so we kicked all the kids outside to play most of the time we were working. My mom showed up a little later and was also a huge help!

The indigo dying is vat dying, so you submerge the cloth in the liquid dye. Once you pull it out, you wring out the extra dye, untie it, and let it set for at least 20 minutes.

When you pull out the cloth from the indigo, it is almost a lime green or a yellow green. It darkens to a rich blue as it oxidizes. You can dip the fabric a second or third time to get a deeper color, but you would not want to untie it until you are finished dipping.

Here you can see the light green, and in the following pictures you can see how it has already darkened a bit in the minute or less this fabric has been out of the dye.

Things setting and drying on the line in my garage

After washing, these actually are a bit lighter, like a medium blue jean. They look really nice, but I forgot to get a picture of them after they were washed and dried.
By the time we got to the regular tie dying, I was really tired so I didn't get many pictures. Maybe I can get some pictures of the finished products to share, though the kids are already enjoying wearing them!

Sunday, March 22, 2015

So far we are three fourths of the way through this month, and I haven't missed a day! I have really enjoyed taking pictures of Mr. Turtle involved in what we are doing. I am having trouble finding angles or perspectives on him, though he has had many adventures!

March 15: It's hard to swing when you can't hold on!

March 16: The other kids were doing it!

March 17: Trying to find a lighter load.

March 18: Mercy found Mr. Turtle while we were hanging out at the park.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

I can't believe that my first child is 10 today! God has blessed us in many ways through her. She is such a willing helper and loves to do all things cooking!
We got to spend the day with our best friends who just moved much closer (to South Carolina from Wisconsin)!

Over the past several years, I have made freezer meals many times. This time, my energy levels are pretty low, so I wanted some meals that would be easy to put together. I found several lists of "Chicken Dump" meals on pinterest. These are a bunch of meals where you dump all the ingredients in a ziploc bag, freeze the meal and then thaw, and cook in the crock pot. So I decided to try 10 of these meals and I doubled them for 20 meals.

Right now, I can't track down the last two recipes that I made, but they are Lime Salsa Chicken, and Balsamic Chicken with Figs.

The kids were a big help! Keira, Kyle, and Sophia helped me cut the vegetables. Avalyn was absolutely invaluable in the process of making these meals. She helped cut and then put all the ingredients into the bags, while I finished cutting and preparing the ingredients. We made all the meals gluten free, and many of the meals are dairy free, too!

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Adrian has decided that he will try to work through the 30 day challenge that he started, but without the stress of trying to get a picture every day and make up for days he missed. But that he will try to take a picture with each prompt as he is able and complete the challenge at a little slower pace.

Monday, March 16, 2015

A local restaurant, Scalini's, makes an eggplant parmesan that can supposedly help induce labor. If your baby is born within 48 hours of eating their eggplant
parmesan, Scalini's will give you a t-shirt for the baby and a $25 gift
certificate.

When I was 3 days over due with Mercy Rose, we decided to head to the restaurant to see if the eggplant would help get labor going. I had her al little over 12 hours later!
Since the shirt finally fits, Adrian took some pictures of our eggplant baby in her eggplant shirt. I couldn't choose just one (or even two) pictures!